This invention relates to telephone sets and more particularly to an optical display for displaying a telephone number as it is dialed.
One of the basic cost problems in the use of telephone equipment is the dialing of a wrong number. In most cases, the person dialing the number knows the correct number which he desires but erroneously dials the number in error. Such errors can occur both with the use of the standard dialer as well as with the use of the pushbutton on the Touch Tone sets. The dialing of the wrong number connects the telephone set to a wrong party. In most cases the telephone companies will give the subscriber a credit for the wrong number. However, although the subscriber may not be charged for the call, nevertheless the telephone company must bear the costs of such wrong numbers.
Additionally, when dialing a wrong number and not receiving an answer, the subscriber does not really know that he has dialed a wrong number and erroneously believes that the party he desires to reach is not at home. Such costs and misleading information resulting from the erroneous dialing of a number could be avoided if the subscriber were made aware of the number which he had dialed prior to completing his call.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to avoid the aforementioned problems of existing telephone equipment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a telephone set having an optical readout of the number entered and being dialed.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide an attachment for a telephone set which provides an optical readout of the number being dialed on the telephone set.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a telephone set attachment which gives an optical readout of the entire number prior to the number being transmitted onto the telephone line.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an attachment for a telephone set which includes an optical display of the number entered and a memory means for retaining the number dialed such that subsequent transmission of the number can be achieved without the necessity of redialing the number.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide an optical readout attachment for a telephone set which can recognize the dialing of an area code and can insert a dash in the optical readout at the appropriate position.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an attachment for a telephone set giving an optical readout of the telephone number entered wherein the last digit entered can be cleared while retaining all previously dialed digits.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an attachment for a telephone set which provides an optical readout of the telephone number entered and which includes a clearing circuit to permit clearing of a number should an error in the dialing be detected by the subscriber.
These and other objects and features of the invention will be apparant from the following description of the invention.